Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova; born April 19, 1987) is a Russian professional tennis player. A United States resident since 1994, Sharapova has competed on the WTA tour since 2001. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the WTA on five separate occasions, for a total of 21 weeks. She is one of ten women, and the only Russian, to hold the career Grand Slam. She is also an Olympic medalist, having earned silver for Russia in women's singles...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionTennis Player
Date of Birth19 April 1987
CityNyagan, Russia
CountryRussian Federation
Right now the most important thing to become number one is to be healthy and ready to play. When you are healthy and happy, then you perform your best, so that's very important that I'm healthy.
I look forward to the challenge of doing well here. I want to protect my number one ranking.
It's been a good year so far. I reached number one in the world at 18.
That's why I play tennis, because I want to be number one, not because I want to be number 10, ... If you don't want to be number one in the world, then there is no reason for you even to start.
I just know for a fact that I never have to prove anything to anyone. No one expected me to win Wimbledon at 17 and no one expected me to be number one at 18.
My next goal is to be number one in the world.
I never think about the numbers. I've never played tennis for the money, because as long as I enjoy it, and I can achieve anything, then the money will come. I know that things will start coming up, many more people will want to start getting involved. But I just want to keep my head cool, and I want to leave (business) to the people who take care of business. I just go out and I just play tennis.
The score doesn't say much about the match,
I've said this like 30 times. I feel like I'm saying it again. The physical part of my game is very important right now. It's what I'm working on. That's what's been improving. I mean, if you look at me a year ago, I don't think I was at this point physically. It didn't take five days, it didn't take a month. It took a whole year to progress and get better.
It would be amazing if I could win here as it's the toughest Grand Slam to win, just because of the traffic.
It was up and down. I felt a little awkward in some situations because I haven't been match tough lately. I'm absolutely exhausted.
It was very frustrating because tournament after a tournament, I'd be working hard, I'd be trying to get back in shape, and all of a sudden my injury would bring me down again.
It was very difficult, I've played Nadia in the last two Grand Slams in the quarter-finals as well and we've had such tough matches and I've been able to pull through so I'm very happy.
It was tough today, she was hitting winners off both sides and I couldn't put two points together. I was a little tired from my previous matches.